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Factor This

Launched in 2022, the Factor This Podcast has featured many of the most influential leaders driving the energy transition. From solar and battery storage executives to utility CEOs, the Factor This Podcast brings unique insights and answers to the energy industry’s most pressing challenges. Go beyond high-level trends and mainstream talking points with actionable takeaways.

The Factor This Podcast grew in 2023 with the addition of This Week in Cleantech, a weekly roundup of the biggest stories in climate and clean energy in 15 minutes or less. With new episodes every Friday, Factor This content director Paul Gerke and Mike Casey, a cleantech commentator and president of Tigercomm, bring listeners the most important headlines of the week while featuring the leading journalists behind the stories.

The all-new FactorThis.com is your best source for news, commentary, and analysis of renewable energy and the power grid.

Latest Episodes:

This Week in Cleantech (7/28/23) — Solar manufacturing, IRA rollout, and clean energy in Coal Country Jul 28, 2023

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This Week in Cleantech is a new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less. Produced by Renewable Energy World and Tigercomm, This Week in Cleantech will air every Friday in the Factor This! podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.
This Week in Cleantech - July 28, 2023
1. Solar Manufacturing in the US Is Facing a Bleak Future, Analysts Warn - Bloomberg
2. Small-town GOP officials are torn over Biden’s clean energy cash - Washington Post
3. These moisture-sucking materials could transform air conditioning - MIT Tech Review
4. There’s not enough land to solve climate change with wood buildings and biofuels - Semafor
5. Rivian anchors BrightNight solar plant at former coal mine - Axios
Watch a video version of the show on YouTube.
Help make This Week in Cleantech the best it can be. Send feedback and story recommendations to ThisWeekInCleantech@tigercomm.us. And don't forget to leave a rating and review wherever you get your podcasts.
Join us every Friday for new episodes of This Week in Cleantech in the Factor This! podcast feed, and tune into new episodes of Factor This! every Monday.
This Week in Cleantech is hosted by Renewable Energy World senior content director John Engel and Tigercomm president Mike Casey. The show is produced by Brian Mendes with research support from Alex Petersen and Clare Quirin.

Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

Form Energy's 100-hour battery is almost here Jul 24, 2023

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Battery storage deployment is surging to fill the gaps left by intermittent renewable energy resources. And, sometimes, those gaps extend days beyond what lithium-ion can handle.
For the past six years, Form Energy has positioned itself as the company to solve for the multi-day challenge. What started with splashy renderings and nearly $1 billion in fundraising announcements has evolved into real contracts with utilities like Xcel and Southern Company, and a commercial-scale iron-air battery plant under construction in West Virginia.
Episode 54 of the Factor This! podcast features Form Energy CEO Mateo Jaramillo, a former Tesla executive pushing for deep decarbonization on the grid.
Jaramillo breaks down the technology behind Form Energy's 100-hour battery, how the company was able to convince risk-averse utilities to buy in, and the challenges still ahead for multi-day energy storage.
That's all next on Factor This!

Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

This Week in Cleantech (7/21/23) — Geothermal 2.0, offshore wind, and 'Bidenomics' Jul 21, 2023

Show notes

Tell us what you think of the show!

This Week in Cleantech is a new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less. Produced by Renewable Energy World and Tigercomm, This Week in Cleantech will air every Friday in the Factor This! podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

This Week in Cleantech - July 21, 2023

1. How Biden's climate law will — and won’t — transform America - The Washington Post
2. US announces first offshore wind rights sale in Gulf of Mexico - Reuters
3. Conservation concerns mean some environmentalists say no to solar projects - NPR
4. New Land Grab by Oil Giants Is Deep Underground - WSJ
5. Enhanced geothermal power is finally a reality - Volts
Watch a video version of the show on YouTube.
Help make This Week in Cleantech the best it can be. Send feedback and story recommendations to ThisWeekInCleantech@tigercomm.us. And don't forget to leave a rating and review wherever you get your podcasts.
Join us every Friday for new episodes of This Week in Cleantech in the Factor This! podcast feed, and tune into new episodes of Factor This! every Monday.
This Week in Cleantech is hosted by Renewable Energy World senior content director John Engel and Tigercomm president Mike Casey. The show is produced by Brian Mendes with research support from Alex Petersen and Clare Quirin.

Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

Will the U.S. get green hydrogen right? One decision has big climate implications Jul 17, 2023

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Green hydrogen could be a key tool to meet climate goals. It could also make things a lot worse, if we get this one critical step wrong.
The U.S. is developing rules for green hydrogen incentives as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, and the options are up for grabs.
The Biden administration faces pressure from developers, trade groups, and environmentalists over how to phase in zero carbon requirements for green hydrogen production, and new research suggests the direction it chooses could have a major impact on the climate.
Episode 53 of the Factor This! podcast features Jesse Jenkins, assistant professor and ZERO Lab lead at Princeton University, who is calling out a leading clean energy trade group for a piece of its green hydrogen agenda.
Jenkins shares how one recommendation from the American Clean Power Association could result in $200 BILLION in taxpayer subsidies responsible for 700 million metric tons of CO2 emissions.
Will the U.S. get green hydrogen right?
That's all next on Factor This!

Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

Fintech arrives to streamline clean energy project finance Jul 03, 2023

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Amanda Li found herself in the thick of the arduous and disorganized project finance lifecycle.
It was 2014, and she had been hired as Generate Capital's first employee. Li was responsible for all aspects of the deal: originating and underwriting, closing, portfolio management, you name it. Each stage had its own litany of documents, and required endless hours to maintain.
It was obvious to Li that the process needed a major upgrade for trillions of dollars to efficiently flow into clean energy, and our climate goals would depend on it.
Episode 52 of the Factor This! podcast features Amanda Li, the co-founder and COO of Banyan Infrastructure, a fintech company streamlining clean energy project finance by digitalizing and housing each step in a single platform.
Li shares how technology is activating fresh capital for distributed energy projects and bringing new players to the table. Just in time.
That's all next on Factor This!

Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

Underperformance. Extreme weather. Labor shortages. Solar's bright outlook faces big risks Jun 26, 2023

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The U.S. solar industry is primed for significant growth in the coming years, emboldened by big federal incentives and even bigger demand for renewable energy.
But asset owners are increasingly talking about extreme weather, underperformance, and labor shortages as growing risks to solar’s growth prospects. These are some of the uncomfortable issues in opposition to the industry's rosy public outlook.
Episode 51 of the Factor This! podcast features Jason Kaminsky, CEO of clean energy insurance provider kWh Analytics, which just dropped its fifth annual Solar Risk Assessment. And it's loaded with valuable insights.
Kaminsky shares the data behind solar's biggest risks, along with pathways to avoid potholes down the road.
That's all next on Factor This!
Show notes:
-Read the fifth annual Solar Risk Assessment from kWh Analytics

Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

Battery storage is booming. Now what do we do with it? Jun 19, 2023

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In the spring of 2016, Jeff Bishop was developing wind projects when he came across an analyst chart that caught his eye.
Battery storage, the analysts forecasted, would follow a similar cost curve as solar. Costs would plummet as deployment ramped up to support a grid ever more dependent on intermittent renewable energy resources.
Bishop quit his job by the summer and launched Key Capture Energy, a developer, owner, and operator of grid-scale battery storage projects.
Turns out, the analysts were right. Seven years later, battery storage deployment is booming.
But the industry is still finding its way. Developers and regulators face questions about how to best use batteries, and what policy structures are needed to facilitate deployment. Moreover, the industry is learning on the fly about how these assets will perform under various state and utility demands.
Bishop joined Episode 50 of the Factor This! podcastto break down how states should, and shouldn't, go about procuring battery storage, and why software is a crucial piece of the puzzle. Plus, stick around for the inside story of how Key Capture went from the brink of insolvency to raising $100 million.

Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

Solar's biggest risk? Too few works to deliver the massive project pipeline May 22, 2023

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Praise for the solar industry's meteoric growth often shines on developers and their multi-gigawatt pipelines and portfolios. Seldom does the limelight extend to the construction crews putting steel in the ground.
But clean electrons aren't generated by hope, targets, and schematics. It's the engineering, procurement, and construction firms that are executing the vision for a clean energy transition.
Therein lies an overlooked hurdle on the horizon: There simply aren't enough qualified EPCs, and workers, to meet the booming demand for solar projects. And rich incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act only stand to magnify the glut in supply.
Episode 49 of the Factor This! podcast features Chris Dunbar, CEO of Blue Ridge Power, for an inside look at how one of the industry's leading utility-scale solar and storage EPCs is navigating a chronic labor shortage and a tumultuous market plagued by supply chain constraints, trade disputes, and the interconnection slog.
Sure, gigawatts of solar projects are in motion. But who's going to build them?

Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

He started solar's preeminent advocacy group. Now, Adam Browning is all in on EVs May 15, 2023

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For more than 20 years, Adam Browning was solar's biggest cheerleader.
There was 165 MW of interconnected solar in the U.S. in 2002 when Browning founded Vote Solar. The organization quickly evolved into the industry's preeminent advocacy group. When he stepped down as executive director in 2021, that figure stood at 122 GW.
Today, Browning has his sights set on the next big decarbonization story, using lessons learned from solar's twists and turns to take on a "biblical" challenge.
Episode 48 of the Factor This! podcast features an old friend to many in solar.
Browning, now the executive vice president of policy and communications for the startup Forum Mobility, looks back on his storied career leading Vote Solar, reacts to the controversial NEM 3.0 ruling in California, and shares why he's starting over to takeon fleet electrification.

Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

Auxin Solar tariff petition: What's next for solar's dark cloud May 08, 2023

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Hurry up and wait.
We launched the Factor This! podcast one year ago — May 9, 2022 — to share a fresh and introspective account of the Auxin Solar tariff petition.
It's been a dark cloud hanging over the solar industry ever since—delaying projects and dampening enthusiasm around the Inflation Reduction Act.
May 2023, for better or worse, was supposed to restore certainty at last with a final determination from the Commerce Department. But that ruling was punted to August, yet again drawing out the industry's prolonged panic attack.
Episode 47 of the Factor This! podcast features an interview with Tim Brightbill, a partner and co-chair for the international trade practice at DC law firm Wiley Rein. He's also an adjunct international trade law professor at Georgetown.
Brightbill broke down the latest in the Auxin case and where it goes from here. Plus, a look back on the exclusive interview with Auxin Solar CEO Mamun Rashid that established the Factor This! as a must-listen for the solar industry.
That's all next on Factor This!

Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

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